


Science Project

by gothvince



Category: Beetlejuice (TV 1989), Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: F/F, High School, Post-Canon, beetlejuice is just sort of there, claire brewster is also a lesbian, lydia deetz is a lesbian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-11 16:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19931131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gothvince/pseuds/gothvince
Summary: Claire isn’t all bad. Mean, sure, but … she’s outgoing and confident and talented and really really pretty, and Lydia thinks they could be friends if they weren’t so different.Are they even that different?





	Science Project

**Author's Note:**

> * this is an odd crossover between the cartoon & musical.  
> * lydia & claire are around 16/17.  
> * this fits in with an upcoming fic, but i wanted to take a break from it and write a little bit about these two.
> 
> beetlebabes shippers this isn't for you.
> 
> enjoy!!

Lydia Deetz is wearing a wide brimmed black hat complete with a veil that hangs over her face. Black boots with way too many buckles, tights with way too many holes in them, a lacy black skirt and a shirt that looks like it’s straight out of a victorian-era graveyard. Her makeup is dark and heavy and her nails are painted black.

This is her dressed down look.

Claire Brewster is absolutely horrified.

“You can’t show up like that,” she hisses, clear disdain in her voice. It’s far too outside of the norm for The Brewster’s taste. What would her parents think? What would _anybody_ think? Claire is certain she can feel everyone staring at her just from being _next_ to someone dressed as weird as Lydia currently.

Lydia, to her credit, doesn’t seem phased at all. “I can get rid of the veil.”

“That won’t help!”

“Fine, then I’ll keep wearing it.”

 _“No!_ Take it off!”

With a wry smile, Lydia takes off her hat, shaking lose the black bob beneath it. “Better?”

Claire hesitates, momentarily distracted by Lydia's face, now that she has a clear view of it. She immediately pushes those thoughts away, and rolls her eyes.

“It’ll do.”

“Oh, joy.”

Being paired up with your worst enemy for a science project is like a nightmare for any high school student. Lydia had spent a good hour ranting to Beetlejuice about how annoyed she is that she has to spend time with Claire _after hours,_ and Beetlejuice had wholeheartedly agreed with her. Neither of them are fond of her, and that’s all to do with the fact that Claire can be an absolute bitch ninety percent of the time. The other ten percent, she’s sleeping. They don’t see eye-to-eye, they’re about as polar opposite as you can get, and Lydia has already made plans to prank the living daylights out of the blonde at some point this week.

Claire isn’t entirely keen on the idea, either. She’d almost started crying when they’d been paired up together, but the immediate shock as worn off and now there’s only an underlying sense of _seething anger._ It’s not that Lydia has ever done anything to her, personally. But she’s just _weird_. She’s so far removed from what could be considered normal and she either doesn’t realise or doesn’t care. Claire can’t fathom it, and she’s absolutely dreading the moment her parents meet the girl - they’re even more judgemental than she is, and it can’t possibly go well.

At least the veil is gone.

“I’ll do the talking,” Claire says as they make their way up the winding drive that leads to the Brewsters mansion-like home. It’s the biggest house in all of Peaceful Pines, and certainly shows off how much money the family has. It pales in comparison to the Deetzes place, which currently resembles the kind of haunted house you’d see in cliche horror movies. Lydia _likes_ it that way. It’s fun, and only serves to keep up the reputation her and Beetlejuice had created for the place during those three days of scaring people.

The Brewster’s place is probably haunted, too, considering how old it is. Lydia wonders, briefly, if she could find some ghosts in there and make friends - she’s sure the Maitlands would like to know they aren’t the only ghosts in town. Lydia zones in on this thought and zones out of the conversation happening in front of her. Claire is explaining who she is and why she’s here, and her father is looking Lydia up and down with clear disdain, and then Claire is leading her upstairs to her room.

“That could have gone worse,” she says, closing her bedroom door.

“Oh, I wasn’t listening.”

Claire rolls her eyes. “Ugh, what- _ever_. Let’s just get this over with! You’re good at science, right? At least you have _that_ going for you.”

Lydia remains oblivious to the veiled insult, but Beetlejuice (who has been following the pair this whole time, invisible, ready to jump into action should Claire step over the line) is scowling. Lydia ignores him and shrugs. “My dad helps me. We should have done this at my place, he’s really good at science.”

“I’m _not_ setting foot in your creepy house. Just tell me what we’re _doing_.”

It tracks that Claire would expect Lydia to do all the work. Lydia’s decided to just grin and bear it, because there’s no changing partners (and she’s _tried_ ). If she has to do a joint project with Claire, she’s going to make damn well sure she passes. So she opens her bag and carefully removes the small ant farm she’s been carrying, kneels down and places it in between herself and Claire. “I want to know if ants burrow faster under certain temperatures.”

“Ew! Oh my god! Put those away, Lydia!”

“No.”

“Seriously! That’s so gross!”

“They’re just ants. And they’re inside a box.”

Claire leaps onto her bed and shuffles backwards, and Lydia sighs. “You don’t have to go near them if you don’t want to. I’ll measure how far they burrow, and you can record the results.”

The blonde makes a noise from her bed, and when Lydia looks up she’s huddled in the corner, eyes wide. Suddenly, Lydia feels a pang of guilt - is Claire scared of bugs? Maybe she shouldn’t have chosen this specific project. Sure, part of her wanted to gross out Claire a little bit, but she certainly didn’t mean to send her spiralling. After a moment’s hesitation she carefully picks up the ant farm and sets it on the window sill on the opposite side of the room. With the ants further away, Claire seems to visibly relax.

“Sorry,” Lydia says. “I didn’t know you were scared of bugs.”

“I’m not! They’re just… _gross_.”

Silence falls. After a minute Claire edges away from her corner, shaking her hair back into it’s usual perfect style, and tries to pretend she isn’t still a bit shaken up. Lydia politely decides not to comment. Instead, she lets her gaze drift around the room. It’s not surprising to her how _pink_ it is, but it is a little jarring for someone who spends all of her time surrounded by the colour black. The walls are pink, there’s tons of velvet and frilly lace pillows on her bed, which is covered in clearly expensive silk bed sheets. One door leads to walk-in wardrobe but apparently it isn’t big enough, because there’s still a large display of shoes next to it - pink and high heeled and everything that Lydia _wouldn’t_ wear. There’s a large vanity complete with tons upon tons of makeup products, and dotted around the room on every surface there are various stuffed animals.

“I like your room.” Despite their differing aesthetics, it’s not a _lie_. It’s very representative as Claire as a person, Lydia thinks, and she likes that she can see the girls personality shine through her chosen decor.

“Of course you do, I have, like, _perfect_ taste.” There’s the ghost of a smile on Claire’s lips, and the usual venom in her tone is all but missing.

“It’s really pink.”

“You stick out like a sore thumb.”

Lydia laughs out loud. “I guess we have pretty different tastes.”

Once again, there’s an awkward silence. The two of them have never interacted in a normal conversation before - Claire’s bullying has been going on since middle school, and though Lydia’s usually very good at brushing things off, high school has brought about its own set of issues for the both of them, and their rivalry seems to have taken a turn for the worst as a result.

And despite that, Lydia doesn’t _hate_ Claire. She may not have the greatest grasp on social interaction, but she can definitely tell when people aren’t happy. Claire hasn’t been happy for as long as they’ve known each other, and judging from the limited interaction’s Lydia’s had with her parents, she can hazard a guess as to why. She vaguely remembers the party they’d thrown for their old forgeign exchange student, where Claire had been all but ignored by her parents for the whole night despite her best efforts --- and sure, the whole Neitherworld prank hadn’t been very nice, but it was still sad to see Claire locked outside by her parents because she’d been a little dirty.

God, she’d been childish at fourteen. Beetlejuice certainly hadn’t helped matters, being the bad influence he is. Lydia bites her lip, and suddenly feels very, very _guilty_.

Not that she needs to feel guilty. She’d never been the one to start things - Claire’s always been the instigator. But perhaps she’d taken things too far, sometimes, and… well, it couldn’t have been easy for Claire. She isn’t all bad. Mean, sure, but …. She’s outgoing and confident and talented and really really pretty, and Lydia thinks they could be friends if they weren’t so different.

Are they even that different?

“Your dad seems nice.” Lydia poses the statement as if it were a question. She suddenly wants to find some common ground between herself and the blonde, and if there’s one thing she can relate to, it’s a dad being too distant.

Claire opens her mouth to say something, then closes it, then shrugs. “He’s great. He’s a really prestigious businessman, you know, he’s _very_ important.”

“My dad’s in business, too. When we first moved here, he wanted to turn the town into a gated community. He’s back in New York right now doing business-y stuff.”

“If your dad’s in New York then how does he help you with science projects?”

Oh, shit. Lydia’s been talking about _Adam_ this whole time, not Charles. It’s not that she doesn’t love her _actual_ dad - they skype all the time, and they have a pretty good relationship despite the distance, even after everything that happened after her mom’s death. It’s just that he and Delia had left her in the care of the Maitlands while they go back to live in New York, so they’re the ones who’ve been Lydia’s surrogate parents for the past few years.

“Uh, I have two dads.”

“You have two dads?!” Claire looks shocked. Is that even allowed? “Oh my _god_.”

Lydia frowns. “Well first of all, there’s nothing wrong with having two dads. Second of all they’re not gay. Charles is my biological dad and he lives with my step-mom Delia in New York. Adam is my adopted dad and he’s married to Barbara who’s my adopted mom, and they both live here in Peaceful Pines.” They’re also totally dead, but it’s probably better to leave that part out.

Claire’s quiet for a moment, and her first instinct is to call Lydia _weird_. That whole situation is so different from how families are supposed to be - one dad, one mom, that’s it. Marriage is between a man and a woman, and divorce is against God’s wishes. Every new thing she learns about Lydia just confirms how _other_ she is.

And yet she seems so happy. So comfortable in herself and her weirdness, never worrying about what other people think or if her parents will get mad at her or… or if people will hate her if she steps out of line. A pang of jealousy hits Claire’s heart, and she suddenly realises why she’s been so cruel to Lydia all these years: she has what Claire wishes she had. Parents who help her with science projects, friends who don’t scrutinise everything she wears. Claire Brewster has spent the past few years building up the idea that she is better than Lydia Deetz, and it just came crashing down.

She can’t even bring herself to be mean.

“I bet it’s nice having two sets of parents. I only have the one, and they don’t help me with my science projects.”

The hint of sadness in her tone is hard to pick up on, but Lydia swears she can hear it. She's quiet for a moment before she moves to sit next to Claire on the bed, and the two girls sit beside each other for a long minute, neither one talking, but both attempting to reconcile their feelings. It’s odd, knowing that a years-long rivalry could have been completely avoided if the two of them had just _talked_ to each other in the way they’re doing now.

The silence stretches. Claire, unable to look Lydia in the eyes, shuffles closer. Lydia remains still, gazing at the blonde, almost entranced by the way she looks --- stripped bare of her walls, now entirely, utterly _herself_. No act; just Claire. She’s fucking radiant.

Claire has never felt this kind of connection before, and she’s not entirely sure where it came from, or why it sprung up so suddenly. But it’s there, and there’s no going back from it, and after a few seconds she gently rests her head on Lydia’s shoulder. She’s terrified that the goth will shove her away, but she doesn’t. Instead, her hand stretches out to find Claire’s, who takes it.

They stay like that for a long time, in a comfortable silence. Content with their new understanding of each other.

Beetlejuice floats in front of them and makes retching noises.


End file.
